Oval or Road?

[Quincy]

I'm looking forward to some oval action.

[Vilante]

Maybe, I love the oval in LFS but I have horrible memories of the oval in Race Driver I think it was, and not being able to get it right. I'll have a crack for sure though.

I have my heart set on Laguna Seca though I must say.

[Bauer]

Im a bit on the fence

my heart is set on the Skippy and no doubt that is the first car I will buy. In fact I would guess that I would get the car and tracks for the next roady series before I would do the same for the ovals

but my history in sim racing tells me that ovals are where Im going to find my best racing. Im prolly looking forward to the Advanced Legends more than anything else right now. I hope I enjoy them enough to race them for a long time.

[Exar Kun]

Roads all the way for me. I've always sucked the big ones on ovals. Same as Stu, I'm really looking forward to the Skippy. So much so that I'm thinking of going for a whole year straight up and using the bonus dollars to score the D series car & tracks aswell.

[DarrenM]

So far I've done 36 road races and 5 on the ovals, 3 of which were just to get my license up because they wanted us to get our license up in both during the beta

They can be fun, but some of the tiny little ovals they run in the early series just don't appeal to me. I'll probably keep doing the minimum required to go up levels (as far as I can without having to buy extra stuff), just in case there ends up being a series that appeals to me, or they add a series that requires both. Then I won't have to do as much grinding when it comes around in order to run it

[SamC]

LAGUNA LAGUNA LAGUNA!

[ysu]

I usually fall asleep on ovals, I just can't find the fun in constantly turning in the same corner again and again and again and again .... but maybe I'll change who knows.

[Hz-Lab]

little ovals do it for me. I remember countless laps on martinsville in NR2003. was awesome.

[NeilPearson]

ovals ovals and more ovals!

[Fandango]

little ovals do it for me. I remember countless laps on martinsville in NR2003. was awesome.

Like a nice small set myself actually

[Gizmo]

Ovals don't really appeal to me.Can't wait for the road racing though.

[Duke]

Umm, another reason why I am sitting on the fence with this sim as most of the world isn't interested in oval racing.
Yes it might make for close racing which is good for a sim but it is such a specific niche form of racing that it really struggles to keep ppl enthused for long periods of time unless you're a redneck southerner from yankee land. (sorry Neil it is the truth)
However the road racing is what is making me keep an interested eye on things but just like the oval tracks the cars on offer also need to be less US centric imho.

[Hz-Lab]

the cars on offer also need to be less US centric imho.

This is something that is of common debate. Personally, i rather like a lot of the American Series, so i'm rather happy with it at this point. However i totally get what you are saying. The good thing is, they have clearly stated that the intention is to get a lot more tracks & cars from all over the world. I guess they just need some money in the bank 1st. But who knows, maybe one day we just may well see Bathurst in there.

Possibly, who would know, we may see v8 supercars in there. Which leads me to a particular Question. Is it possible for say Ford or Holden to license one if the V8 Supercars to iRacing in the future without the blessings of VESA? I wonder this purely cos i remember the days of Gran Turismo & Setons AU. It was just odd that that one car appeared in the Game off it's own back. Was it Licensed by Ford? or by VESA? is it possible we could see V8 supercar spec cars without any tie to V8 supercars?

[Duke]

I didn't want to quote you Hz but your thoughts are exactly why I have concerns that content development outside of the US will be slow to non-existent.
From my way of thinking there are two limitations on the development outside of the US, the major backer and the current iRacing sponsor list are all US based, they may not want to spend additional funds on a lot of outside US content given the US market would be their main target and main source of funding...
Then there is the issue you have raised around securing licencing agreements for all the non-US content which would incl tracks & vehicles based on rl championships. Remember this is why we see so many sims fail in this area by either having to maximise the licenses they have secured with multiple releases (Race) or forgo realness (LFS) &/or open it to freeware modding (rFactor). I mean GPL (same developer) couldn't secure the rights to use the Ferrari name in the original and that was 10yrs ago so why would it have changed now. by the way isn't the V8 Supercars already tied to a sim developer?
At the end of the day it is a business that has to make sound business decisions and this sim is at the very cutting edge of having to produce tangible results for its backers.

[NeilPearson]

Ferrari was used in GPL wasnt it? its honda and cooper which arent iirc.

[Duke]

Ferrari was used in GPL wasnt it? its honda and cooper which arent iirc.

yeah maybe, but you get my point. I remember it took the developers of Gran Turismo along time to get the Ferrari license.

EDIT: Yep you are right Neil, from Wikipedia

There are also two fantasy cars to choose from, the Murasama and the Coventry—thinly disguised stand-ins for the Honda RA300 and the Cooper T81B (licensing issues precluded these marques from being included in the package).

[Sarsippius]

I'm definitely a road course man but the short ovals have me a little intrigued, I'll give them a go, if only to get a bit more value out of the game I did race the ovals in Indycar back in the day so I think I'll get some enjoyment out of them.

Same as Stu, I'm really looking forward to the Skippy. So much so that I'm thinking of going for a whole year straight up and using the bonus dollars to score the D series car & tracks aswell.

After giving it a one month trial, if I like it and there's enough people racing in our time zone I think I'll do the same as it's definitely the most economical way. The Skippy looks like a decent little car and it's the logical choice in regards to the series.

As for the US cars I'm not too fussed, lack of cars and the extra cost is a bigger issue. The Solstice is very uninspiring but then so is the XR GT and I've had plenty of good racing in that. Being with LFS for so long I'm obviously not too fussed about racing specific real life cars. As mentioned the Skippy looks like a fun little car and the Formula Mazda looks like it could be quite good, if it's like the FO8 I'll be happy, the Radical also looks to be quite the sexy race car
If iRacing becomes a success I fully expect more international cars and tracks to be included, compared to all other sims the prices of the content actually makes this possible to my mind. Maybe it's just wishful thinking but it's one thing that makes the prices justifiable from my pov.

[Hz-Lab]

Flinty, i reckon a we'll see quite a few international tracks anyway, i don't feel thats a big problem. It's the cars that may cause an issue.

However, what i was getting at, Is that can they bypass the series and head straight to the manufacturers. The Radical for example is a manufactured race car, they run in many series around the world, even here in Aus. They have gone to the Car manufacturers to get the license, not the series, the same has been done with the Legends car, the Silver Crown Car & possibly others. This may be a way around things. I think the Silver Crown has some series licensing with it however, and most likely other cars will have too where it's an option.

This might not be possible for the v8 supercars though due to project Blueprint, i think VESA keep a pretty tight reign on all things spec, so there is probably no way around it. But, who knows, maybe there is.

in the grand scheme of things though, the Australian market is probably not a priority anyway. oh well.

[NeilPearson]

wonder if they can goto dodge, toyota, chevy and ford directly and get cups cars... id be in heaven

[Exar Kun]

wonder if they can goto dodge, toyota, chevy and ford directly and get cups cars... id be in heaven

They'd only need to go to one wouldn't they? A paint job would take care of the rest.

It still seems possible in F1 to go to individual teams (BMW being the obvious example there) so I can't see V8s being any worse... or can they?

[Hz-Lab]

wonder if they can goto dodge, toyota, chevy and ford directly and get cups cars... id be in heaven

They'd only need to go to one wouldn't they? A paint job would take care of the rest.

It still seems possible in F1 to go to individual teams (BMW being the obvious example there) so I can't see V8s being any worse... or can they?

The difference which i see being a problem. Is that all cars are the same spec, with slight alterations between the commies & Falcs. I think VESA own the rights to the car specs. The difference being, In F1, they have guidelines they must build a car to, with their own design, where as the v8's are building to a specific Design. I know a lot of teams build their own chassis and whatnot, but aren't they just following a plan to an extent? with a little bit of flexibility. I dunno, i could be wrong, i hope i am.

Like i mentioned about the Seto #5 car in GT, that was pre-Project Blueprint days, so there was probably a loophole that doesn't exist anymore.

[DarrenM]

LAGUNA LAGUNA LAGUNA!

http://forum.racesimcentral.com/showpos ... stcount=89

[Vilante]

WOW!!